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00:01:06 #1 1937, before beginning of a new kind of war,
00:01:13 #2 was bombing from the air of a helpless civilian population.
00:01:29 #3 Why are these innocent Chinese men, women, children
00:01:33 #4 to die beneath the hail of Japanese bombs?
00:01:37 #5 To find the answer to this question,
00:01:38 #6 we must first understand something about China and Japan.
00:01:43 #7 And to understand China, three facts must never be forgotten.
00:01:48 #8 China is history.
00:01:54 #9 China is land.
00:01:58 #10 China is people.
00:02:03 #11 Chinese history goes back for more than 4,000 years.
00:02:07 #12 That's a long time.
00:02:09 #13 It was only 168 years ago that Washington
00:02:12 #14 crossed the Delaware.
00:02:16 #15 Only 452 years have passed since Columbus discovered
00:02:19 #16 America.
00:02:22 #17 It's 1,500 years since the world saw the fall of the ancient
00:02:26 #18 Roman Empire.
00:02:28 #19 3,400 years have gone by since Moses received the 10
00:02:32 #20 commandments, 3700 years have passed since the pyramids were built.
00:02:39 #21 But more than 4000 years ago, the Chinese Empire was already in existence.
00:02:45 #22 And more important, so was the Chinese civilization, a civilization of art and
00:02:51 #23 learning and peace.
00:02:54 #24 Yes, China is history.
00:02:58 #25 And China is also land, more land than the entire continent of Europe.
00:03:03 #26 a third larger than the United States and rich in raw materials.
00:03:11 #27 This vast area consists of China proper and four outer provinces.
00:03:16 #28 To the north, this Manchuria.
00:03:18 #29 Huge and desolate, but abounding in raw materials.
00:03:25 #30 Next to Manchuria are Mongolia and Sincang.
00:03:30 #31 Here lies the Gobi Desert, a vast plateau twice the size of Texas,
00:03:35 #32 inhabited by nomad tribes who lead their camel caravans back and forth over ancient trade routes.
00:03:44 #33 To the west is Tibet, the icy roof of the world, its borders encompassing the eastern end of the Himalayan mountains,
00:03:53 #34 the mystery land that few have entered, and from these vast mountains of the west rise the three great rivers which are China's lifeblood.
00:04:04 #35 The northern most of these is the Huanghou, the Yellow River, often known as China's sorrow because of its frequent flooding.
00:04:12 #36 Far to the south flows the Sikyang, the Pearl River, which enters the sea past the great ports of Canton and Hong Kong.
00:04:20 #37 But the greatest river of all is the one that flows between the Yangtze, winding for 3,000 miles through the heart of China,
00:04:29 #38 bringing fertility to the good earth and bearing upon its broad waters half the commerce of China.
00:04:36 #39 Yes, China is land, next to Russia the largest country in the world.
00:04:42 #40 But most important, China is people, 450 million of them.
00:04:48 #41 If the whole population of China were to walk past you, for a breath, there would never be an end to the procession.
00:05:14 #42 For new Chinese would be born and would grow up before the last man could pass by.
00:05:21 #43 Of every five persons on the face of the earth, one is a Chinese.
00:05:26 #44 And since one fifth of all the human beings in the world are Chinese, we should know what sort of people they are.
00:05:34 #45 Well, in all their 4,000 years of continuous history, they have never waged a war of conquest.
00:05:40 #46 They're that sort of people.
00:05:42 #47 They developed the art of printing for movable type.
00:05:46 #48 They invented the Mariner's compass, without which no ocean could be crossed.
00:05:51 #49 They were among the first astronomers, and their observations of the stars and planets made possible the accurate measuring and recording of time.
00:06:00 #50 They are that sort of people.
00:06:02 #51 And why do we call our dishes China?
00:06:05 #52 Because the Chinese invented the art of making porcelain.
00:06:09 #53 And as we all know they invented gunpowder, not as a weapon of war.
00:06:14 #54 Celebrate their holidays and religious festivals.
00:06:20 #55 And it was one of China's great philosophers who, 500 years before the birth of Christ, gave mankind these words.
00:06:29 #56 What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
00:06:34 #57 They are that sort of people, enriching the world in which we live.
00:06:39 #58 lives. Yes, China is incredibly old, incredibly big, incredibly popular.
00:06:48 #59 Yet it was until recently a land with which few of us concerned ourselves.
00:06:52 #60 But now a great change has taken place.
00:06:59 #61 China is now our fighting ally or more accurately, we are China.
00:07:04 #62 But China has been fighting our enemy, Japan, for seven long years.
00:07:08 #63 Why is this? Why have the Chinese, when all their 4,000 years of history had never waged
00:07:17 #64 an aggressive war, been forced to fight? To fight and die by the millions? Because China
00:07:25 #65 is land, 4 million square miles of land, and because China is people, 450 million of them,
00:07:34 #66 and because Japan had a plan to use them both? That plan was finally stated in the Tanaka
00:07:40 #67 Memorial, a blueprint for world conquest, formulated in 1927 by Baron
00:07:46 #68 Gishi Tanaka, the Japanese Foreign Minister.
00:07:50 #69 In order to conquer the world, we must first conquer China.
00:07:55 #70 Here was their mad dream. Phase one, the conquest of Manchuria for raw materials.
00:08:01 #71 Phase two, the absorption of China for manpower, piece by piece, so as not to
00:08:06 #72 aroused the rest of the world. Phase three, a triumphant sweep to the south to seize the
00:08:12 #73 riches of the Indies. Phase four, the eastward move to crush the United States. One fact
00:08:21 #74 was obvious. China was to be the giant back on which Japan would ride to world conquest,
00:08:28 #75 just as Russia was to be enslaved for German use. But how was it possible for Japan,
00:08:35 #76 only one twentieth the size of China, and with only one sixth its population, to think of
00:08:41 #77 conquering China, much less the world. There were two main reasons for this. In the first
00:08:47 #78 place, modern China, in spite of its age-old history, was like the broken pieces of a
00:08:52 #79 jigsaw puzzle, each piece controlled by a different ruler, each with his own private
00:08:58 #80 In modern terms, China was a country, but not yet a nation, while Japan was a united, well-knit, highly regimented military dictatorship.
00:09:09 #81 Second reason lies in the uses each country made of our western civilization.
00:09:16 #82 Let's see what China took.
00:09:18 #83 You will notice that this is a very old piece of film.
00:09:23 #84 Actually, it is more than 30 years old, and it shows a very great man by the name of Sun Yat Sen.
00:09:30 #85 In 1911, this man fathered a people's revolution,
00:09:35 #86 which brought to an end China's ancient imperial government
00:09:38 #87 and began its new era as a modern republic.
00:09:42 #88 Winning for himself in Chinese history
00:09:44 #89 is secure a place as George Washington has in ours.
00:09:48 #90 And he and his followers chose for the cornerstone
00:09:51 #91 of their new republic,
00:09:52 #92 Chinese words that echoed those of another believer
00:09:55 #93 in democracy.
00:09:56 #94 Of the people, by the people.
00:09:59 #95 And to make these principles become reality, they built more schools and colleges.
00:10:06 #96 They established scholarships so that their young men and women could go forth to the universities of America and Europe
00:10:12 #97 and bring back to their own country other Western ideas.
00:10:16 #98 And this new generation returned to China with new techniques of industry.
00:10:23 #99 Architecture.
00:10:25 #100 Science.
00:10:26 #101 Medicine.
00:10:28 #102 They built more hospitals to free their people from the blight of disease.
00:10:32 #103 They introduced compulsory education.
00:10:35 #104 They laid down as essential two of the four freedoms for which we fight today.
00:10:41 #105 Freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
00:10:44 #106 In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died, but his disciples, led by Chiang Kai-shek, carried on his monumental work.
00:10:55 #107 Their aim? The unification and modernization of China.
00:10:59 #108 Chinese industry was old-fashioned and inefficient.
00:11:03 #109 Transportation was slow and inadequate.
00:11:06 #110 But now railroads began to link the great seaports and river harbors with the inland cities.
00:11:12 #111 A network of highways began to stretch beyond the railroad lines into the deep interior.
00:11:18 #112 After leaving them untouched for centuries, China was beginning to use her vast store of raw materials.
00:11:25 #113 The tools and machines of the new factories were delivering the goods and products for China's new economy.
00:11:40 #114 For the Chinese believed in using the best of Western civilization for the progress of their country.
00:11:47 #115 And while they were building this new nation, just a day and a half by steamer across the Yellow Sea laid Japan.
00:11:55 #116 Here the God Emperor and his fanatic warlords were using this same western civilization
00:12:04 #117 for one purpose and only one, to create one of the world's most powerful war machines.
00:12:11 #118 Their aim? The absorption of China and the fulfillment of the Tanaka Memorial.
00:12:17 #119 For years Japan had deliberately copied military weapons and industrial techniques discovered in other countries.
00:12:36 #120 For years, Japan, under the pretext of lacking raw materials for industry, had been buying
00:12:43 #121 in every corner of the world materials not only to build this war machine, but materials
00:12:49 #122 which could be stored defeated in the war of conquest they were planning.
00:12:55 #123 For years, while other nations were trying to outlaw war by reducing armaments, Japan
00:13:01 #124 Japan was feverishly and secretly building a modern army, a modern navy, a modern air force
00:13:08 #125 to strike its infamous flow at the civilized world.
00:13:13 #126 And we all now know about the islands in the Pacific that Japan fortified in violation
00:13:18 #127 of all international treaties.
00:13:21 #128 These were the reasons why it was possible for Japan, only one-twentieth the size of
00:13:26 #129 of China and only one sixth of the population of China to think of conquering China as the
00:13:32 #130 first step to world conquest.
00:13:35 #131 And as you have seen, in 1931 they embarked on phase one, the occupation of Manchuria.
00:13:42 #132 The small bonfire that the Japanese lit in Manchurian was to grow and spread with uncontrollable
00:13:51 #133 fury until the entire world was aflame.
00:14:05 #134 one that the Tanaka plan was completed and exactly as planned. The Japs have been
00:14:10 #135 confident that this first and sudden land grab could be accomplished without
00:14:14 #136 they're becoming involved in a major war. And they were right. The unification of
00:14:20 #137 China was still too remote for the Chinese of the South to care what happened
00:14:24 #138 to their kinsmen in the north. Using the step-by-step technique a few months
00:14:31 #139 Later the Japs took a crack at Shanghai.
00:14:39 #140 The Chinese resistance was so great they hastily called that deal off.
00:14:43 #141 Waited another year and then struck in the north again,
00:14:47 #142 carving the province of Yehole out of China proper.
00:14:51 #143 This too they got away with.
00:14:54 #144 The world criticized.
00:14:56 #145 The Chinese protested.
00:14:59 #146 But still the Japs got what they wanted, another piece of China.
00:15:03 #147 and without a war on their hands.
00:15:06 #148 And to rule over Manchuria and Yeho,
00:15:09 #149 the Japs then set up a puppet government
00:15:11 #150 under their stooge, Henry Puyi, the Chinese Quisling Prince.
00:15:17 #151 But the leaders of New China remembered
00:15:19 #152 that in other centuries, other barbarians
00:15:21 #153 had invaded their country.
00:15:23 #154 The evidence still stood in the Great Wall,
00:15:26 #155 built by their ancestors more than 2,000 years earlier,
00:15:30 #156 and stretching for 1400 miles across mountain and desert
00:15:34 #157 to protect themselves from the barbarians of the north.
00:15:42 #158 Of the Great Wall, it has been said
00:15:43 #159 that it is the only work of man which
00:15:45 #160 would be visible from the moon.
00:15:48 #161 But the Chinese knew that modern barbarians can't
00:15:50 #162 be stopped by a wall, however strong or high.
00:15:56 #163 They can't even be stopped by people,
00:15:59 #164 unless the people are united.
00:16:05 #165 And by 1937, the unification of China
00:16:09 #166 was making such progress, the Japs got worried.
00:16:13 #167 The one weapon they could not permit China was unity.
00:16:16 #168 They would strike again before China could become a nation.
00:16:20 #169 This time, it would be a big bite.
00:16:23 #170 Five more northern provinces out of the heart of China.
00:16:27 #171 At the United States Embassy in China
00:16:29 #172 as military attaché for a number of years
00:16:31 #173 was Colonel William Mayer.
00:16:33 #174 Let him tell you what happened.
00:16:36 #175 First thing the Japs did was to prepare their usual fake
00:16:38 #176 this time it wasn't a damaged railway track as it had been in Manchuria in
00:16:43 #177 1931. A Jap soldier had disappeared. Obviously he'd been kidnapped by the
00:16:48 #178 insolent Chinese. Once more Japan's honor had been insulted. Once more the
00:16:54 #179 insult must be avenged. So on the night of July 7th, 1937 at the Marco Polo
00:17:00 #180 Bridge near Peking, the Jap war machine struck. Within the space of the few
00:17:13 #181 weeks the invaders were in control of Tinson and Bapin.
00:17:18 #182 It looked as if the Japs were going to have another walkover.
00:17:26 #183 Now the Japs sat back to digest and organize this new conquest.
00:17:30 #184 The peace loving Japanese didn't want a war if they could get
00:17:34 #185 their land grabs without one. But this time they were in for a rude surprise.
00:17:42 #186 This time instead of protesting or negotiating the Chinese struck back.
00:17:47 #187 I'm on!
00:17:51 #188 And not in the north, but at Shanghai, where the japs least expected.
00:18:04 #189 To understand the fighting that followed, we must know something about the city of Shanghai itself.
00:18:10 #190 Situated near the mouth of the Yangtze River, it is the biggest city in China.
00:18:17 #191 As the largest seaport in the far east, it dominated the commerce and foreign trade of China.
00:18:23 #192 And through its great docks and chandles past most of the wealth of the Ori.
00:18:28 #193 In Shanghai, truly the East met the West.
00:18:38 #194 And within this city of 3 and 1 half million Chinese
00:18:42 #195 was another city, the Foreign Settlement.
00:18:46 #196 Made up of the French Concession and the well-known international
00:18:50 #197 settlement, there the various powers, including Great Britain,
00:18:54 #198 the United States, and Japan, had stationed
00:18:58 #199 detachments of troops, Japanese, British, French,
00:19:05 #200 and our own United States Marines,
00:19:07 #201 to assist the police of the Shanghai Municipal Council
00:19:11 #202 in the preservation of peace and order,
00:19:13 #203 and to protect the boundaries of the international settlement.
00:19:17 #204 These detachments were limited in size,
00:19:19 #205 but the Japs secretly and in violation
00:19:22 #206 of all treaty agreements had increased their garrisons
00:19:25 #207 so that when fighting started
00:19:26 #208 on the border of their concession in August of 1937,
00:19:31 #209 they thought they were fully prepared
00:19:33 #210 for any eventuality.
00:19:52 #211 The force of the Chinese counter-attack almost drove the Japs into the Wangpu River.
00:19:57 #212 Backed up by the heavy guns of their warships, however, the Japs managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
00:20:04 #213 Jap landings were then made in the vicinity of the Wusung Fort,
00:20:08 #214 and in Luhou and Lotian on the Yangtze River north of Shanghai.
00:20:15 #215 The Chinese drew back to positions five or ten miles inland,
00:20:18 #216 where they could secure some protection from the heavy Jap naval gunfire.
00:20:38 #217 At the same time, the invaders succeeded in making a surprise landing some 20 miles to the south of Shanghai.
00:20:45 #218 Put two divisions ashore and pushed rapidly north to outflank the city.
00:21:00 #219 The Chinese position was thus made untenable.
00:21:03 #220 Under withdrawal was ordered to the west and to the south toward Nanking and Hangchao.
00:21:09 #221 But only about half of the Chinese army that had fought at Shanghai was left to withdraw.
00:21:16 #222 Enraged at the very idea of anyone resisting the Imperial Japanese might,
00:21:21 #223 the Japs took their vengeance upon the civilian population of the city.
00:21:25 #224 A city without guns or planes to defend itself.
00:21:29 #225 And deliberately slaughtered thousands from the air.
00:21:32 #226 This refuge inside the international settle,
00:22:24 #227 where Japan was afraid to bomb the property and people of the foreign powers.
00:22:28 #228 Just yet, there was not room for all.
00:22:46 #229 For each who found safety inside, there were thousands
00:22:51 #230 huddled beyond the gates, standing helpless and undefended against the Jap attacks.
00:22:56 #231 There was no escape for these surging and panic-stricken people.
00:23:01 #232 They could only scurry through the narrow streets, pushing and packing themselves into
00:23:08 #233 the center of the city, to be trapped, buried alive in the collapse of bombed and burning buildings.
00:23:14 #234 Thus, the Japanese introduced the world to a new kind of war.
00:24:07 #235 war, a war of deliberate terrorization, of deliberate mass murder, of deliberate frightfulness.
00:24:38 #236 When the campaign was over, the Japs occupied the entire peninsula east of Shanghai.
00:24:44 #237 Reorganizing rapidly, they then launched a coordinated drive on Nanking.
00:24:48 #238 One column pushed along the railroad while another swung further to the south.
00:24:53 #239 This column then split and continued its drive, hoping to cut off any possible retreat
00:24:58 #240 of the Chinese armies defending Nanking.
00:25:01 #241 It was here in the Yangtze
00:25:04 #242 that the blood-crazed Japs attacked an American gunboat,
00:25:08 #243 the USS Panai,
00:25:09 #244 despite its distinctive markings.
00:25:12 #245 The ship was bombed and sunk with the loss of American lives.
00:25:25 #246 The first American warship to go to the bottom in this war.
00:25:29 #247 But officially at least this was a mistake
00:25:32 #248 and the Japanese government apologized.
00:25:34 #249 In the meantime, at Nanking, the Chinese armies valiantly defended their city, which was the capital of the Chinese Republic.
00:25:42 #250 The city fell to the invaders.
00:26:50 #251 The occupation of Nanking, the Japs again outdid themselves in barbarism.
00:27:08 #252 The hopeless populace was trapped by the city walls.
00:27:11 #253 They could not flee.
00:27:13 #254 The Japanese soldiers went berserk.
00:27:18 #255 They raped and tortured.
00:27:20 #256 They killed and butchered.
00:27:23 #257 In one of the bloodiest massacres of recorded history, they murdered 40,000 men, women, children.
00:27:45 #258 Those who lived might better have died, for the horror of their twisted and torn bodies was worse than death.
00:28:20 #259 These scenes were photographed by an American missionary, and smuggled out of China after the rape of Nanking.
00:28:26 #260 of Nanking. This nightmare of cruelty was all the more horrible because it was
00:28:39 #261 deliberately planned by the Japanese High Command to tear the heart out of the
00:28:44 #262 Chinese people once and forever and then it happened. That which Sun Yat Sen had
00:29:00 #263 dreamed of, that which Chiang Kai-shek had toiled for, that which is stronger than
00:29:07 #264 stone walls had at last been born in China. The will to resist.
00:29:12 #265 In their last bloody blow, the Japanese had accomplished what 4,000 years had failed to bring into being.
00:29:19 #266 A united China, an aroused China.
00:29:32 #267 We must unite to destroy the Japanese.
00:29:35 #268 Then we will be able to get security.
00:29:39 #269 The responsibility of the people to save the country should be shared.
00:29:44 #270 But the Chinese knew that the will to resist was not by itself enough.
00:30:17 #271 They knew that China must develop the power to resist also.
00:30:21 #272 And this cannot be created in an instant.
00:30:24 #273 So they too made a plan.
00:30:26 #274 And it was this.
00:30:28 #275 They would slowly yield territory, piece by piece,
00:30:32 #276 while they developed the power and built the weapons
00:30:35 #277 to rid the land of its invaders.
00:30:37 #278 The industrial strength of China must be moved to the west,
00:30:41 #279 beyond the mountains, beyond the railroad lines,
00:30:44 #280 railroad lines, beyond the lines of communication.
00:30:49 #281 They are safe from enemy attacks.
00:30:51 #282 They might produce the rifles and guns that China so tragically needed.
00:30:56 #283 Thus China would trade space for time.
00:31:01 #284 Space for time.
00:31:02 #285 Blow up the roads.
00:31:10 #286 Space for time.
00:31:12 #287 Scorch the earth.
00:31:20 #288 Space for time.
00:31:21 #289 Blow up the factory building.
00:31:27 #290 leave nothing for the invaders.
00:31:32 #291 And then the people rose and moved,
00:31:35 #292 riding, walking, crawling.
00:31:52 #293 30 million of them spontaneously driven by an epic impulse.
00:31:56 #294 Rose and made their way westward, the earth teaming with them,
00:32:03 #295 moving westward on a trek that stretched through 2,000
00:32:06 #296 miles of roadless wilderness.
00:32:09 #297 Thus the world witnessed one of the most amazing
00:32:11 #298 spectacles in human history.
00:32:14 #299 greatest mass migration ever recorded. Whatever could be of use and could be moved, the Chinese
00:32:22 #300 took with them on a Homeric journey. Their libraries, their schools, their hospitals,
00:32:30 #301 all dismantled and carted away. The machinery from over a thousand factories, weighing over
00:32:37 #302 300 million pounds was moved away in trucks and ox carts and on their backs
00:32:44 #303 2,000 miles away 2,000 miles west wherever they could they gathered
00:32:52 #304 along the few remaining railroads waiting hoping for some chance to ride part of
00:32:57 #305 the way toward their westward goal and when they have packed the last train
00:33:02 #306 with the last ounce of humanity and machinery the tracks themselves were
00:33:06 #307 taken up rail by rail, tie by tie, to be transported westward to leave nothing for the enemy.
00:33:34 #308 Every river pointing westward was heavy laden. Every sandpan, every bar was pressed into
00:33:40 #309 service, weighted down to the water's edge with the precious tools for new China. Nothing
00:33:54 #310 could stop them, not even the rivers that narrowed into mountain gorges. Westward,
00:34:00 #311 with their loads of machinery more precious than gold.
00:35:07 #312 It's measured by the mile, by feet, by inches.
00:35:12 #313 The trail they broke was moistened every step of the way
00:35:15 #314 by their sweat.
00:35:16 #315 Where there were no trains, no boats, no ox carts,
00:35:20 #316 there were still willing hands and willing feet,
00:35:23 #317 straining backs.
00:35:26 #318 30 million people moving west.
00:35:29 #319 Westward from the invader, westward from slavery
00:35:32 #320 and death. Westward to freedom.
00:35:36 #321 In the free mountain lands of the west,
00:36:17 #322 ancients sprang into fresh and modern life.
00:36:20 #323 Chief of the mall was the new capital of free China,
00:36:23 #324 Chongqing.
00:36:26 #325 Here on the cliffs high above the Yangtze River,
00:36:29 #326 the Chinese had reestablished their government.
00:36:33 #327 They knew, however, that the people of the city
00:36:35 #328 would not be safe from Jap air raids.
00:36:38 #329 The memories of Shanghai were fresh in their minds.
00:36:41 #330 And in the sandstone cliff on which the city is built,
00:36:44 #331 thousands of workmen rushed the construction
00:36:46 #332 of enormous caves, the shelters for the people,
00:36:49 #333 and for the pitifully fuel machines,
00:36:51 #334 more important than life.
00:36:56 #335 To the Japs, Chungking became the heart
00:36:58 #336 of the Chinese nation.
00:36:59 #337 They were determined to conquer, destroy Chungking,
00:37:03 #338 and they would break the spirit of new China.
00:37:06 #339 You look nice.
00:37:07 #340 You look.
00:37:08 #341 You look nice.
00:37:18 #342 As they couldn't reach the city by land,
00:37:20 #343 They would send their bombers to blast it from the face of the earth.
00:37:58 #344 Against these Japanese armadas, slow and obsolete Chinese planes made a suicidal attempt to defend Chung-King,
00:38:06 #345 where the vital machines could operate by day and by night, safe from bombs and shrapnel,
00:40:11 #346 and the Chinese had anticipated their enemy.
00:40:25 #347 In spite of bombs and fire and destruction, this time the Chinese stood fast,
00:40:32 #348 Claiming Trong King became the symbol of their indestructible spirit.
00:40:48 #349 And now the call to arms sounded throughout New China.
00:41:05 #350 And from the vast interior, China's millions answered the call.
00:41:10 #351 They came from the south and from the north.
00:41:19 #352 From the east and from the west, the form of people's armies.
00:41:25 #353 With a new faith in their hearts, men and women left their homes and farms to fight for something
00:41:34 #354 bigger now than each man's home, and each man's farm, and each man's life.
00:41:40 #355 They were fighting for new China.
00:41:55 #356 New soldiers, awkward and unskilled, like all new soldiers.
00:42:00 #357 But they toppled and trained.
00:42:18 #358 They learned the discipline and order of drill.
00:42:21 #359 They knew they must strike and strike hard.
00:42:25 #360 They learned to kill.
00:42:30 #361 The youth of China also came forward,
00:42:33 #362 training to care for the sick and the wounded.
00:42:36 #363 Girls joined their husbands, brothers,
00:42:38 #364 and sweethearts in uniform.
00:42:46 #365 And to the aid of China came volunteers from other lands.
00:42:50 #366 Men who pledged themselves to fight against tyranny
00:42:52 #367 and oppression no matter where.
00:42:55 #368 Americans like the legendary Colonel Shandong
00:42:58 #369 and his flying tigers.
00:43:00 #370 Who with their few American planes
00:43:03 #371 were knocking down enemy planes at the fantastic ratio of 20 nips to one of their own.
00:43:10 #372 The Japs had hoped to ride to world conquest on the back of the giant Chinese workhorse.
00:43:16 #373 Phase two of the Tanaka plan called for breaking the horse to their will.
00:43:21 #374 But the great patient horse refused to be broken.
00:43:26 #375 The enraged Japs saw their whole plan of conquest bogging down.
00:43:30 #376 So they set out to drain the giant's strength by cutting the arteries through which flowed China's lifeblood of supplies.
00:43:38 #377 They penetrated along the rivers. Railroads destroyed by the Chinese were rebuilt with slave labor,
00:43:45 #378 as the Japanese moved inland to secure control of key rail lines and important communications.
00:43:52 #379 And China's supply lines from the outside world were cut off by Jap warships blockading the coast.
00:43:58 #380 The Japanese strategy was the isolation of China.
00:44:02 #381 Port after port was occupied.
00:44:06 #382 This meant China was being cut off from supplies she couldn't manufacture for herself.
00:44:11 #383 Supplies she was getting from her Western friends, without oil, gas, guns and planes.
00:44:19 #384 China was doomed.
00:44:20 #385 With the whole of the Chinese coast in the hands of the Japs, there would only be two routes over which to bring the vitally necessary materials.
00:44:28 #386 From Indochina, a narrow-gauge railway ran inland from the sea to Kunming,
00:44:33 #387 connecting with a truck road that went to Chongqing.
00:44:36 #388 But its capacity was limited.
00:44:38 #389 And then there was the old trail of the camel caravans from Russia across the Gobi Desert,
00:44:43 #390 which could bring in even less.
00:44:45 #391 Not only did these routes provide too little for China's needs,
00:44:49 #392 but there were two near-jap territory to be safe.
00:44:52 #393 There was only one other possibility.
00:44:54 #394 possibility. In Burma was a railroad that ran from the port of Rangoon to Lashill.
00:45:00 #395 Separating it from the truck road at Kunming were hundreds of miles of high
00:45:05 #396 mountains and deep river gorges. If this stretch of tortuous mountain trails
00:45:10 #397 could be replaced by a modern highway where now only pack trains could pick
00:45:15 #398 their plodding way, China would have a practical supply route to Burma and the sea.
00:45:22 #399 Several internationally known firms of engineers were called in to do the job.
00:45:27 #400 They said the work might be completed in six or seven years,
00:45:31 #401 if China could supply them with the most modern machinery.
00:45:34 #402 But China didn't have the modern machinery, nor did she have the six or seven years.
00:45:39 #403 So she began building the road with her bare hands,
00:45:43 #404 by thousands, by tens of thousands, by hundreds of thousands.
00:46:07 #405 They toiled at the back breaking task of carving this desperately needed supply line out of the reluctant mouths.
00:46:14 #406 And out of their toil and their sweat, they created the Burma Road.
00:46:49 #407 Not in six or seven years but in less than 12 months.
00:46:53 #408 A monument to the new spirit, to the new China.
00:46:57 #409 As soon as it was completed, the road went into immediate service.
00:47:01 #410 By thousands the truck shuttled back and forth between its terminals.
00:47:12 #411 its terminals, climbing to nearly 10,000 feet, around hairpin curves, along the edges of
00:47:22 #412 sheer precipices where passing trucks had barely one foot of clearance, and the blood
00:47:31 #413 plasma of new supplies flowed steadily over China's lifeline to the sea, protected by
00:47:37 #414 Colonel Shanault's incredible flying targets.
00:47:41 #415 The Chinese sacrifice cannot be measured only in miracles of construction.
00:47:45 #416 must be counted too in the tragedy of destruction.
00:47:49 #417 For while still the Burma Road was being built,
00:47:52 #418 the invading Jap armies had fanned out
00:47:55 #419 and straddled fully two-thirds of the railroad lines
00:47:58 #420 of the country.
00:47:59 #421 In the summer of 1938, they set out
00:48:01 #422 to capture the remaining one-third,
00:48:04 #423 starting with the vital railroad junction at Chang Chao.
00:48:08 #424 Chang Chao is situated on the banks of the Yellow River,
00:48:11 #425 China's sorrow.
00:48:13 #426 Originally, the river flowed from Changchao southeastward to the Yellow Sea.
00:48:18 #427 But nearly a century ago, a great flood abruptly changed its course,
00:48:22 #428 swinging it far to the north.
00:48:26 #429 For generation upon generation, as the spring floods rushed down to the sea,
00:48:31 #430 thousands of Chinese worked on the dikes to hold the river in its new course,
00:48:35 #431 protecting their homes and their crops.
00:48:43 #432 Now, as the japs advanced on Changchao,
00:48:45 #433 The Chinese blew up the southern dike of the Yellow River,
00:48:49 #434 thus loosing a flood between themselves and the Japs.
00:48:55 #435 Once more the river flowed in its old course,
00:49:05 #436 forming a barrier which to this day
00:49:07 #437 has prevented the Japs from entrenching himself in this area.
00:49:11 #438 Thus once more, with no thought of the human sacrifice of the material cost,
00:49:20 #439 the Chinese traded space for time.
00:49:24 #440 And the Chinese had still other tricks to pull from their patched and faded sleeves.
00:49:33 #441 You will notice that this map of Jap's conquests doesn't look like the military maps you have seen in the previous films.
00:49:40 #442 By all military standards it should have looked like this, which is the way the Japs wanted it to look.
00:49:46 #443 But the Japanese were learning that the occupation of Chinese cities and control of Chinese rivers and railroads
00:49:54 #444 still was far from meaning the subjugation of China.
00:49:58 #445 The Chinese had formed themselves into guerrilla bands,
00:50:02 #446 trained to harass the Jap forces.
00:50:05 #447 These guerrillas were mostly farmers
00:50:07 #448 who had stayed behind on the land
00:50:09 #449 when the great migration to the west took place.
00:50:12 #450 Peaceful farmers one day,
00:50:14 #451 deadly fighters the next.
00:50:16 #452 They made an unpredictable and uncontrollable enemy.
00:50:20 #453 The Japs held the lines of communications,
00:50:41 #454 But in the pockets thus formed, these unconquerable gorillas constantly sniked at the Jap invaders.
00:50:48 #455 When the Japs tried to annihilate them, they disappeared, only to reappear in another pocket.
00:50:54 #456 Tracking with speed and surprise, they ambushed enemy patrols.
00:51:32 #457 The Japanese were fighting more than the Chinese people.
00:51:35 #458 They were fighting the Chinese land.
00:51:38 #459 the great distances, the rivers, the floods, the swamps and marshes.
00:51:44 #460 These two were enemies that defied the Jap war machine.
00:51:49 #461 The giant back Japan intended to ride to world conquest
00:51:53 #462 was proving to be a bucking bronco.
00:51:56 #463 Phase two of the Tanaka plan had bugged down
00:51:59 #464 in what the Jap still referred to as the China incident.
00:52:03 #465 This left them in a fateful quandary.
00:52:05 #466 Phase two of the Tanaka plan was still incomplete, but phase three and phase four could no longer be delayed.
00:52:13 #467 In Russia, the overwhelming German offensive was taxing Russia's military capacity to the limit,
00:52:20 #468 removing any Japanese fear of Russian interference.
00:52:24 #469 Britain, after the sledgehammer blows of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, was left groggy and militarily almost exhausted.
00:52:32 #470 Her navy scattered across the seas, guarding her lifeline of supplies.
00:52:39 #471 But here in America we were finally awakening to our danger and taking steps to protect
00:52:44 #472 ourselves.
00:52:46 #473 We had appropriated funds for the construction of a two ocean navy, and our army was rapidly
00:52:51 #474 expanding.
00:52:52 #475 If the ultimate objectives of the Tanaka plan were to be achieved, now was the moment
00:52:59 #476 to strike.
00:53:01 #477 Now when Russia was otherwise occupied, now before Britain could recuperate, now before
00:53:07 #478 we could gather too much strength.
00:53:10 #479 So the Japs made a fateful decision.
00:53:13 #480 They would embark on Phase 3 and Phase 4, the conquest of the Indies in the United
00:53:18 #481 States without waiting to complete Phase 2, the conquest of China.
00:53:24 #482 Thus, to paralyze American power in the Pacific.
00:53:29 #483 warning as they have always struck they struck again according to all the rules
00:53:45 #484 China's position should now be greatly improved for in her war with Japan China
00:53:50 #485 now had fighting allies ourselves the British the Dutch but it didn't work
00:53:56 #486 that way for China for in those tragic early months of 1942 when we sustained
00:54:05 #487 defeat after defeat at the hands of our common enemy China endured the worst
00:54:16 #488 set back of all. Out of our defeats, China lost the Burma road. But still, China's courage
00:54:27 #489 never faltered. Her determination never weakened. And in the history of those long and tragic
00:54:34 #490 months of black defeat in 1942, one bright page stands for it. A page written by our
00:54:41 #491 Chinese allies. Here is the city of Changsha. The Japs wanted it for two reasons. It
00:54:48 #492 It was in the center of the Chinese rice bowl, and it was also an important railway junction.
00:54:54 #493 Twice before they had tried to take it, and twice before they had been thrown back.
00:54:59 #494 Massing a large striking force near Yochou on Christmas Eve 1941,
00:55:05 #495 the Jap started southward toward Changsha in three columns.
00:55:09 #496 At three points during the drive south, the Chinese forces put up token resistance.
00:55:14 #497 But instead of withdrawing toward Changsha, they withdrew east into the mountainous flank.
00:55:21 #498 By New Year's Eve, the Japs had surrounded the city.
00:55:24 #499 They quickly pierced the outer defenses and attacked the inner defenses from four directions.
00:55:29 #500 In spite of fierce resistance, the Japs were certain that the fall of Changsha was only a matter of hours.
00:55:35 #501 What they didn't know was that they had walked into a well-bated trap
00:55:39 #502 for the Chinese forces which had withdrawn into the hills
00:55:42 #503 Now swept down on the Jap supply lines and cut them to ribbons.
00:55:47 #504 The Jap forces attacking the city soon ran out of food and ammunition and began a withdrawal.
00:55:53 #505 Whereupon the Chinese launched a counter-offensive and pushed the Jack where they had come from.
00:56:00 #506 The Jap column was forced to run the gauntlet, continuous attack by the pursuing Chinese forces.
00:56:11 #507 The battle of Changshao was a magnificent victory for the people of China, the people who wouldn't surrender,
00:56:45 #508 the people determined to fight for their freedom, their good earth, the people who can't be beaten.
00:56:52 #509 And as 1944 dawns, there is another and greater story being written.
00:56:58 #510 From the Aleutians to the South Pacific, we are on the offensive.
00:57:06 #511 We are on the offensive.
00:57:08 #512 In the jungles of New Guinea, in the Gilbert and Marshall
00:57:11 #513 Islands, on the shores of New Britain,
00:57:18 #514 on the broad Pacific waters, Japan
00:57:21 #515 places the daily expanding power of the nation she attacked.
00:57:40 #516 And in India, American, British, and Chinese forces
00:57:44 #517 are gathering strength under Lord Mouthman
00:57:46 #518 for the liberation of China.
00:57:48 #519 For China's war is our war.
00:57:51 #520 And now her millions belong not only to United China, but also to the United Nations.
00:57:57 #521 Leader of our American forces is General Stillwell, who has the unique honor of being the chief of staff of all the Chinese Expeditionary Army.
00:58:06 #522 Division after division of thick Chinese troops are being flown in our planes from China to India,
00:58:12 #523 where they are armed and equipped with the most modern American weapons.
00:58:16 #524 Trained and hardened, the spearhead the coming drive against Japan.
00:58:22 #525 Through enemy-held territory in northern Burma, the new Lido Road is being pushed.
00:58:28 #526 Over mountains, through jungle and swamp, from India to China, to connect with the old Burma Road.
00:58:37 #527 In the jungle on either side, American and Chinese patrols protect the road and strike at the jacks.
00:58:44 #528 of the Japs. Their supplies and ammunition brought in by plane and parachute. From fields in India,
00:59:01 #529 an Air Transport Command plane takes off every six minutes, loaded with artillery,
00:59:07 #530 jeeps, ammunition, men and supplies for the armies of China. Over this Burma skyway, over this hump
00:59:18 #531 of mountains 16,000 feet high, more tonnage is being flown into China than was ever
00:59:24 #532 trucked in over the old Burma Road. And in the skies over China, Japan faces new
00:59:31 #533 opposition. Young Chinese, many of them trained on the fields of Arizona, New
00:59:40 #534 Mexico, California, fly and flight beside their American comrades. The fighters
00:59:47 #535 and bombers of the Chinese Air Force and those of General Chenault's 14th Air Force, today
00:59:53 #536 fly far and wide over China, getting enemy concentrations, smashing their sea lanes along
01:00:03 #537 the China coast.
01:00:14 #538 The same people that moved in nation 2000 miles that built the Burma Road are building
01:00:21 #539 airfields out of stones, mud, and patient, tireless hands.
01:00:27 #540 Today, though still cut off by land and sea from the rest of the world,
01:00:44 #541 Chinese armies and Chinese guerrillas still stand firm against the Jap war machine.
01:00:51 #542 The oldest and the youngest of the world's great nations, together with the British Commonwealth,
01:01:02 #543 fight side by side in the struggle that is as old as China herself.
01:01:07 #544 The struggle of freedom against slavery, civilization against barbarism.
01:01:13 #545 Good against evil.
01:01:15 #546 Upon their victory depends the future of mankind.
01:01:19 #547 We in China, like you, want a better world.
01:01:26 #548 Not for ourselves alone, but for all mankind.
01:01:31 #549 And we must have it.